Syria's Ceasefire Has Stopped Widespread Violence, But The Tanks Remain

Widespread violence in Syria ceased today following the final
deadline for implementation of a cease-fire to end violence in a
conflict that has lasted for over a year.

But opposition and activist groups have told
the BBC there is a "growing number of incidents reported
across the country," and activists on Twitter
delivered consistent reports of snipers stationed on rooftops in
flashpoint neighborhoods. Unverified reports suggested that
gunmen have fired on and killed several civilians, though whether
the shooters are Syrian Army forces or shabiha remains unclear.

"Government troops, tanks and heavy weapons remain in and around
populations centres. Their withdrawal was to have been the first
step in the Annan peace process, to be completed last Tuesday,"
Jim Muir wrote for the BBC from
Beirut.

The Associated Press reported that it was "the first
brief lull" in weeks of bloodshed. An activist group said "all of
Syria's flashpoints in the central provinces of Hama and Homs,
the northern regions of Idlib and Aleppo, the capital Damascus
and its suburbs, as well as Daraa to the south and Deir el-Zour
to the east were quiet." Homs, which has been under heavy
artillery bombardment, was silent for the first time in three
weeks.

The United Nations estimates that over 9,000 people have been
killed in the violence, and tens of thousands of refugees have
streamed into neighboring Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon.

However, the Local Coordination Committees said around midday
that shelling was heard in the Qarabis neighborhood of Homs. The
report was not verified.

Burhan Ghalioun, the head of the exiled Syrian National Council
in Turkey, called on Syrians still in the country to test the
cease-fire by returning to the streets to protest, according to Agence
France Presse.

The AP said activists expect protesters to return to the streets
in "huge numbers" if the cease-fire holds, and said that even if
tanks are withdrawn "shabiha," civilian militias aligned with the
government, could retaliate.